The internal surrounding sides of the dome show 360 degree computer graphic imagery of roads and landscape, complete with signs, pedestrians, street-side stores and faraway Mount Fuji - all synchronised to move with the simulated driving.

In a demonstration for reporters at a Toyota technology centre, the dome moved in a 35-metre long building, skidding on a rail horizontally and vertically.

When a driver pushed on the brakes, the dome tilted forward to give the effect of stopping. When the driver turned the steering wheel to the right, the dome cocked to the right to give the feeling of turning.

Toyota Motor Corp officials said the simulator is useful for testing safety features such as warning beeps about oncoming vehicles without endangering drivers. The machine will also be handy for analysing how drowsiness and intoxication affect driving, they said.

The big unknown about making safe cars is understanding the human brain and other aspects of human behaviour, and the simulator will help solve such questions, said Executive Vice President Kazuo Okamoto.

Other automakers have developed driving simulators, but they tend to be stationery, giving the effect of driving by shaking and rocking, and showing imagery only in one spot. The dome and other moving parts of Toyota's simulator weighs 78 tons, the company said.

The two reporters who drew lots for trying out the simulator said the braking and acceleration felt much like real-life driving, although one reporter said the graphics weren't realistic enough.

There are no computer graphics of a crash. Hitting a computer generated pedestrian merely makes the image disappear.

On a test course, Toyota separately showed experimental wireless safety features, such as those that warn vehicles of a red light ahead through beeping and the image of a traffic light that pops up near the speedometer. The system uses infrared beacons on roadside poles.

A similar technology, which uses a wireless network, warns a driver of an unseen pedestrian with a GPS device.

Such warnings systems are being developed by other automakers, including Nissan Motor Co and Honda Motor Co. Toyota said the three automakers plan to begin collaborating on the technology on road tests next year.